it off with it being such an established classic.

Well no more excuses, this is Half-Life!

One of the golden standards in first-person shooters

and an all-time classic among games in general.

More specifically, this is the original release for Windows PCs, developed by Valve Software

and published by Sierra Studios on November 19th, 1998.

And you can tell it's an early release, not only due to its sizable gatefold box,

but the fact that protagonist Gordon Freeman doesn't even have glasses here.

That changed by the time the 1999 Game of the Year Edition came around, with Mister

Freeman donning a respectable set of spectacles from here onwards.

We'll get back to some of the later releases in a bit, but for now let's stick to the original release.

Inside the box you get a jewel case containing the game CD-ROM sprinkled with rusty patterns

and mathematical equations, a registration card that was found bundled with both Sierra

and Knowledge Adventure titles, an ad for the official Half-Life strategy guide, the

Fall 1998 Sierra software catalog featuring full-color ads for both Half-Life and a standalone

version of the Half-Life editor, Worldcraft Pro: a product that was canceled in March of '99.

And finally there's the owner's manual, a 40-page document featuring vivid orange

highlights and piles of detailed gameplay information and concept art, as well as an

ad for the Falcon Northwest Mach V. Man that company was all over the place, seems like

there were Falcon ads for every major PC game release back then.

Half-Life begins with some logo videos, including that iconic one from Valve.

[ominous Valve theme plays]

Ahh "Hazardous Environments," still one of the best intro themes around.

And at this point you get the original Half-Life main menu, something I hadn't seen in ages.

Subsequent versions of the game changed this menu around quite a bit, before ditching it

entirely once Steam came along.

One thing that didn't change is the default control scheme, and for good reason: it's

still pretty standard, even decades later.

This was back when default FPS controls could still vary wildly from game to game, but Half-Life

was one of the very first PC games I remember seeing WASD for movement, control and shift

for ducking and walking, E for interactions, etc.

And to this effect, Valve included a training room for players unfamiliar with this kind

of first-person shooter.

It's more or less just a [“practice mooooode”]

where you can mess around with the controls, mechanics, and weaponry.

But you're also accompanied by a helpful holographic training guide.

-"Hello and welcome to the Black Mesa Hazard Course, where you'll be trained”

-”in the use of a hazardous environment suit. I am your holographic assistant."

And even though the default controls are going to be second nature to anyone familiar with

more modern FPS games, I still recommend going through this hazard course due to a couple

of the moves you need to master in Half-Life.

Namely, the crouch jumping and long jumping, two moves that are vital to navigating a significant

chunk of Half-Life but are pretty much non-existent in newer shooters.

Once that's over, it's time to clock in for a day of work at the Black Mesa research facility.

And that begins with a leisurely tram ride, making for a deliberately slow introduction

to the vast Half-Life universe.

-”The time is 8:47 AM. Current topside temperature is 93 degrees”

“with an estimated high of one hundred and five.”

And man, seeing this for the first time was mind-boggling stuff to teenage me.

This was an FPS game that began without the 's.'

Nothing to shoot, no guns or weapons, no one to talk to.

Just a bit of exposition in the form of the computerized tram voice and the text letting

you know you're 27 year old Gordon Freeman, an MIT graduate with a PhD in theoretical

physics, and a level 3 Black Mesa research assistant

assigned to the anomalous materials laboratory.

Who also happens to be running late to work.

-”Morning Mister Freeman, looks like you're running late!”

[keypad beeping, door opening]

Oh and it's worth noting that the gameplay you're seeing here is being captured using

original retro hardware with Creative's Environmental Audio Extensions enabled.

Makes quite a difference compared to sound cards without it.

-”Hey, Mr. Freeman. I had a bunch of messages for you,"

"but we had a system crash about twenty minutes ago and I'm still trying to find my files.”

-”Hey, Mr. Freeman. I had a bunch of messages for you,"

"but we had a system crash about twenty minutes ago and I'm still trying to find my files.”

Some players may understandably prefer it turned off, or using Aureal's A3D mode instead.

But either way Half-Life was one of the premiere titles to make use of audio hardware enhancements

back then and personally it just feels right having EAX enabled.

Echoey audio or not though, this starting section in Black Mesa is still crazy to me.

In a good way, I love when games go out of their way to provide extraneous interactivity,

and Half-Life delivered here with its locker rooms, hand dryers,

soda machines, and microwave casseroles.

[beep beep boop, BLAM]

-”My god, what are you doing?!”

And of course, this is where you get the Hazardous EnVironment suit.

The HEV practically turns you into a superhero, so that's convenient considering what's to come.

And that is, well, you're throwing science at the wall here to see what sticks.

Imagine if CERN went the way of Stephen King's The Mist, the latter of which has been cited

by Half-Life's developers as an inspiration.

Turns out that shimmering alien crystals and anti-mass spectrometers don't mix, resulting

in a massive quantum event known as The Resonance Cascade.

[scientists scream, resonances cascade, bad things happen]

Yeah so an interdimensional rift has opened up

and lots of murderous aliens are flooding into the facility.

It's up to you to... survive, mostly.

Though unlike the rest of the poor souls in Black Mesa, you're equipped with a suit

that largely protects you from all manner of attacks and hazards.

And thankfully it's not long before you find Half-Life's most recognizable weapon,

the crowbar, uniquely clad in red paint and perfectly suited for bashing alien flesh and

fragile objects alike.

But even with these advantages, for the most part you're running scared like everyone

else, enduring attacks from face-hugging headcrabs, zombified former scientists,

and the sonically obnoxious Houndeyes.

Luckily you're not stuck with the crowbar for too long, with increasing enemy threat

matched with increasing firepower.

Two different pistols, a combat shotgun, and an SMG show up, as do explosives like grenades,

trip mines, satchel charges, and a laser-guided RPG.

There's a powerful crossbow that acts as your sniping option, along with the Tau Cannon

and Gluon Gun: energy weapons that dole out incredible damage while constantly running

low on ammo.

Two organic alien weapons fill out the arsenal, with the Hornet Gun and the throwable Snarks,

each of which are a little odd, but effective.

And despite the fact Gordon can't actually speak, there's no shortage of talking in Half-Life.

When you run across friendly survivors, mostly scientists and security guards, Freeman can

interact with them and have a one-sided conversation.

There are no objective markers or anything, so this is the game's primary method of

letting you know what's going on and what to do next.

-”Gordon. If I'd known it was you I'd have let you in.”

“Everyone is heading to the surface. But I think they're crazy not to stay put."

"Someone is bound to come by and rescue us.”

This also provides ways to unlock hidden areas and alternate paths since each NPC can be

asked to follow you around.

If you can keep them alive, they'll do things like open locked doors, provide health resources

when you're hurt, and even engage enemies in combat.

Typically not very useful combat, but y'know, the gesture is appreciated.

And considering the escalation in difficulty once the military shows up, I'll take all

the gestures I can get.

Yeah, it rapidly becomes clear that Black Mesa is considered a lost cause by the authorities,

who've dispatched legions of grunts to clean up the mess.

Seems that you and your colleagues are considered part of that mess, so you're soon fighting

both otherworldly creatures and combat-trained assassins wielding military-grade hardware.

These guys do not mess around either, with both aliens and the military displaying some

impressive AI, for 1998.

Ambush attacks, suppressive fire, flanking maneuvers, flushing out with explosives, even

tracking you using sound as well as scent.

Yeah as printed on the back of the box, enemies have a sense of smell,

so one misjudged fart and you're dead.

[shoots, dies]

"Emergency: user death imminent."

That's not to say Half-Life is a non-stop flatulent shooting gallery though.

More often than not, it's just you alone navigating Black Mesa with a flashlight, looking

feverishly for the next health and suit charging stations.

And progressing in a notably linear fashion, more than many other shooters I was playing

in the late '90s.

Make no mistake, it's still a substantial 10 to 15 hour story with plenty of detours

off the beaten path.

But unlike Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, or even Unreal, which all often relied on a string of large

maps with straightforward entrances and exits, Half-Life is a distinctly linear campaign.

You can't really go off the rails too much, instead being funneled through each area with

clear intentions.

Rarely are you left wondering what to do next, as typically there's a clear obstacle to

overcome in each map segment.

Often it's a puzzle with a logical yet slightly elusive solution, giving Half-Life an appropriately

scientific quality when making progress.

Maps also weave together in a way that was fresh at the time, where one area loads directly

into the next as you encounter it.

No key cards, exit switches, or level ending stat screens here.

You can even go back and forth between maps as well in many cases, making Half-Life feel

more like a large cohesive world rather than an assortment of loosely-connected maps.

And just the overall atmosphere, it's pretty fantastic.

With rather minimal amounts of admittedly awesome music and a good mix of industrial

atmosphere and creepy alien sound effects.

And each area feels distinct in both theme and mechanics, always tossing out new puzzles,

hazards, and environments in order to test your skills.

Keeping in mind this was using the GoldSrc Engine, based on the Quake code base, this

was quite impressive stuff.

Graphically it was no powerhouse, but Half-Life still more than impressed with its network

of claustrophobic passages, ample storage facilities, and ethically questionable laboratories.

Not to mention features like in-engine cutscenes that were quite novel at the time, and the

numerous scripted horror sequences that do a stellar job of putting you on edge, morbid

curiosity piqued by what further atrocities lie ahead.

The Black Mesa Research Facility and its surrounding environs constantly keeps you on the defense

while unraveling the mystery of how to overcome the latest roadblock.

Fixing power problems, manipulating water pumps, troubleshooting rocket engines, shooting

a giant alien using remote missile launchers, even taking down attack choppers!

And then there's navigating tunnels using cumbersome rail cars, slippery first-person

platforming, exhaustingly repetitious combat encounters... ah I'm remembering why I got

so annoyed at Half-Life once upon a time.

For every enjoyable challenge there is to solve, you're presented with another that's

either tedious or straight up frustrating.

Sometimes AI misses its cue and you're left reloading save games until it works, sometimes

AI does its job too well and you die cheaply from hitscan weapons with little to no chance

to react, other times you just fall off a ladder to your doom because the ladder climbing

mechanic sucks, or the game will just freak out because physics aren't always what they seem.

For all of its groundbreaking awesomeness, Half-Life is occasionally waist-deep in wonkiness

which can turn into a pile of aggravation if you're not adequately prepared for it.

This is especially true of the final chapters that take place on the alien borderworld of Xen.

Kind of a shame too, because I dig the overall design of the place with its crazy gravity,

funky landscapes, and giant crabby sac monsters.

But by this point, without fail I am entirely ready for the story to be over with.

All the jumping puzzles, annoying enemies, spiky difficulty, and unclear objectives on

Xen didn't do it for me on my first playthrough and I have even less patience for it now.

Ah well at least the ending is enjoyably strange,

with you finally coming face to face with the G-Man.

Up to this point you only see him show up in silence with no explanation.

And you still don't quite get an explanation at the end either, but at least it's something.

-”That's why I'm here, Mr. Freeman. I have recommended your services”

“to my employers and they have authorized me to offer you a job.”

“They agree with me that you have limitless potential.”

At this point you can either accept the G-Man's vague offer and you're teleported to who

knows where, preparing for the inevitable sequel.

Or you can turn him down, being teleported to who knows where, preparing to die at the

hands of an army of alien grunts.

Either way, the credits roll and that's the end of Half-Life!